September 30, 2025 • 44 mins
Derek, Dave, and DJ react to the Atlanta Falcons' 34-27 win over the Washington Commanders and how it got the team back on track before a very early bye week. They also take a temperature check of where the team is at through the "first quarter" of the season.
0:25 - Intro
1:17 - Shock's favorite game
7:00 - Offensive turnaround
19:35 - Defense plays good enough
21:37 - Putting the game away
25:50 - Temperature check
35:30 - Week 5 Bye
43:18 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:29):
He's into He is like, start great, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You guy can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
The fellows are back of the Falcons Audible presented by
A T and T and it's you know. I always
say that we're not more excited than we are in
any other weeks because our job is to kind of
just float like this right, call them how we see it.
So even though the Falcons won.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Last week, we might have a little bit more smile
on our face.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
However, we give it to you, whether it's good, whether
it's bad. What it happened to be good this week?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Sot'll give you the good.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There's just a little bit more to talk about. When
the Atlanta Falcons play a whole lot better is they
come away with a thirty four to twenty seventh victory
at home against the Washington Commanders. And we are going
to start with DJ Shockley, Ladies and Jada favorite quote
unquote game on the Falcons audible. Okay, this is the
one that is the most challenging for him because shakas
(01:28):
he bose.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Okay, and we have to.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
We have he has got to describe this game.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
When have I went over there? I mean, I don't
I don't stand when it's happened before. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Three words describe the win the game, and three words
ready go.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
You ready?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Ready? What you got?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
What we expected?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What we expect? Did you see how he kind of
like he was so proud of himself. He went like
a different voice, like what we expected. Yeah, you gotta
you gotta change the tony All right now you said
good job.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
By the way, don't want me to describe it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Now, I watch what happens. Now you can get verbose.
Now you can explain what you mean by what we expected.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Listen, listen to mister mister ah Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
To be honest, I felt this would be a game
that they would respond. I felt this was the offense
we expected to see when we started to season, and
I was glad to see the performers come out that
I thought we all expected to see. We all been
around this team long enough to see what their makeup was.
And then when you get, you know, punched in the
(02:43):
face we saw two weeks ago. If you had any
gumption about yourself, you have any pride about yourself, you're
gonna show up. And I thought they would show up.
So it was what I.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Was probably should said what I expected.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Maybe everybody else didn't expect that, but what I expected
with this team showing up.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Why all right, Arch, you're on the hot seat. Three words,
three words on same page, on same page.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Does that work? Shock You're you're trying to figure out
if I said three words. No, I didn't. I didn't
do it. Now I just we There were so many
things that were talked about last week.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We talked about it on this here, It was talked
about throughout Sportstock Radio here in Atlanta, and about the
fact that there was dysfunction offensively, whether it was communication issues,
it was getting lined up, whether it was where you
were supposed to be on your routes, and people lost
their jobs because guys maybe weren't playing at the right
level and somebody else, somebody got blamed for it, whether
(03:38):
the quarterback was driving with his with his receivers, you know,
the one thing you could count on was the matrix.
He was going to do what he needed to do.
And that's mister Robinson, Jean Robinson. The rest of it
was kind of dysfunctional. On same page, I thought that
we saw what this offense can be when their synergy
between the play caller which he made it adjustment, came
(04:00):
down on the field. That looked like that paid dividends.
With his communication with not just the quarterback, and you
talked about this last week's shock.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
He can talk to everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You know, and when you're on the headset, sometimes you
just get the quarterback and that's it. But he could
walk up and down, he could talk to the old line,
a couple of points you want to make out to
the old line, the running back, so wide, receivers, tight ends.
Zach was on the field to be able to do
all that kind of stuff. And then obviously the intimate
conversation he could have with with his quarterback and then
even interact with maybe Kirk Cousins and East and stick
(04:31):
who are there and seeing things as well. Just more
opportunities to be on same page.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Love it all right, So we had what we expected,
what I expected on same page. You guys, ready for mine.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Dreas, this should be pretty good, I know, right.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Ready, ready for this. Rose to the challenge?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
You know why?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Because to the is one word negative.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I just made it up.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
It is he tg what to the to.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Rose? But you got to be from the land of
ten thousand weeks we're talking.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
We were talking before the show about dialect and Southern dialect,
about certain people's shops and saying when he was a rookie,
some people couldn't understand him in the hudd because they
coudn't understand his Southern accent. To that's one of those
Southern things. Okay, rose to the to the challenge. Okay,
and here's the reason why. Okay, let me explain that
was actually my third key to the game last week was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Rise to the challenge.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We always talk about rise up here in Atlanta. Okay,
but there was not a whole Yes, you could sit
here and talk about football stuff that needed to happen
to the game. I think all three of us understood
that the biggest thing that had to happen against Washington
was for Atlanta to answer the bell. Okay, if you
want to call it a different phrase, I should used
that one. That's actually three words. I didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Combine them now, but I liked it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I just invented the new Southern.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
I don't think the Southerners are gonna cover claim that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
But it's okay, It's okay with it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I'm gonna sell it. I'm gonna sell it to the Okay.
But that was it was. It was one of those
kind of intangible things where it just meant like players, coaches,
everybody involved had to just go out there and be different,
Like it just had to be a completely different performance, mindset, attitude. Obviously,
football stuff had to happen, execution making plays, catching the ball,
(06:22):
throwing the ball, making tackle, scoring points, right, But at
the end of the day, this was more about a
pride game, right is are you going to go out
there and play with pride and passion?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You like it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
You went Willie Beaman on us pride?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So before we get into all the coaching movies and football.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Is trying to those movie references.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So that's our game and that's the reason why we
like to play. Thanks Jared for putting that on a rundown,
because we always find a way to have fun with it.
It usually ends up going off the rails at some point.
But let's talk a little bit more about the game
offense played. And fantastic is a hard word to use, guys,
because I think all of us would agree. When you're
actually in the NFL, you don't ever say that you
(07:08):
played fantastic, like you played good. We could always do
something better. Here's the thing I will tell you, guys,
and Arch I'm gonna start with you. For the first
three games of the season, Atlanta had scored three touchdowns. Okay,
but Jean Robinson receiving touchdown, Pennox rush touchdown, Algier rush touchdown,
and seven field goals.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
That's good. That is not good?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
No, okay, and obviously none of them happened against Carolina. Sure, okay,
against Washington four touchdowns, two field goals, So more touchdowns
in one game than they had in the previous three games.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So my question to you is from the offense, is
this what they're capable of? Is this completely out of
the norm or was the last three games just nowhere
near the expectation level?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think this is this is a little bit more
of the threshold we expect them to play at.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Expect you expect what you're going to get.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I do think there's there'll be a leveling of the
mean to think you're going to go out and score
thirty four points a game, you're going to lead the league.
And we've seen one team go back to sixteen that
was close to that, that would play at that level.
Is this young group capable of playing at that level?
And you mentioned is this their capability? Yeah, definitely. You
couple that with some stingy defense, and I'm talking about
(08:22):
being backed up where you get a gig big kick return,
a turnover, whatever it may be, and to limit the
other team to just four field goals. Then that's kind
of the synergy you're looking for from both sides of
the football, but speaking specifically about the offensive side of
the ball, you want everybody involved, and Michael was able
and Zach was able to get everybody involved. You know,
(08:44):
Kyle's making plays, Drake's making plays. The matrix is making plays.
The bowling ball of Razor blades is making plays, you know,
and now that if you can you know, Casey Washington
makes a big catch along the sideline. Darnel Mooney did
a really good job of widening and increase where Michael
get the ball out with pressure in his face. Need
to see a little bit more from the other ancillary parts.
(09:06):
But man, the offensive line played at a high level.
Capability is probably a good word. Now, how many times
here's the challenge. Now, how many times can.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
You push that threshold? Can you get there?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Because you're gonna put a lot of stress on a
lot of teams, and I'm not talking about just the
defenses that you're gonna face. You're gonna put a lot
of stress on other team's offenses if you have the
ability to go do that, and you're gonna put your
defense in some really good pass rush situations, similar to
what we saw about a decade ago Shock.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
There was excuse me, so many really good performances in
this game. Pennix completes seventy seven percent of his passes
over three hundred yards, does throw the one interception. Jehan
Robinson twenty one touches in the game sets a career
high in receiving yards. You mentioned Drake London eight for
one hundred and ten pits, five catches. Pits now, by
the way, has twenty receptions this year, almost half of
(09:59):
what he had all of last year, number one, number two.
Last year through four games he had eight catches. Okay,
so he's more than double that.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And think about how he's playing raft. Yeah, I mean
think about the attitude, the body language. He scores the
touchdown and we get kind of the Ray Lewis you know,
show your chest type deal. Just in the play he
makes in that final drive where he gets interfered with it,
snatches the ball. He just snatched it out of the air.
That's my football. Just the attitude he's playing an arch.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Those are the plays like when I'm watching it, I said,
that's what he has to do, Like he is a
matchup nightmares, right, And sometimes it's like your quarterback can
say I'm going to throw this ball up in his
vicinity and I'm going to trust that he's going to
bail me out because number one, he's that athletic and
number two he's just got so much length. So that
was the first thing that came to my mind, is
(10:50):
those are the catches that he has to make for us,
right because of what he brings to the table. So
of all the offensive things that we talked about, shock,
what was most impressive to you watching the game?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
That's tough. I mean, you guys laid it out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And I think day one of training camp we heard
Michael Pennick say, did y'all see me throw the coppits?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Did y'all see that? Y'all saw that, right?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So I think there was a little foreshadowing of this
guy trusts number eight to do what he does, and
we've seen him make those kind of plays in the past,
but to see him have, like you mentioned, that attitude
is different.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
When that guy of that size wants to play that way.
Who's gonna stop him? You can't stop him. It ain't
gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But I think, obviously the thing that sticks out to
me is those two dudes that stand next to Michael
Pennocks Junior. If they are rolling, how do you stop
his offense? Because it opens up everything else. The run
Tyler Iger makes to get in the end zone. He
(11:53):
goes and attacks the dB and runs through him like
please come.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That's what he was looking.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
It looked like he was like I want contact immediately
makes the guy miss in the backfield, then the speed
to get there, and.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Then the finish.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Dude's watching the tape like, okay, when I see two five,
I gotta make sure I bring everything, and I.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Might want to think about a different way of doing it.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So you got him doing what he does. He had
thirteen fourteen carrias in the ball game. And then you
talk about Ar said the matrix. I mean, it's unreal.
Every week we say can you believe he did that?
Like we still are has a fathom about what this
guy can do with the ball in his hands. The
play that Arch talked about that gets it to Mooney,
(12:40):
he has to step up and fill that gap and
he has to have a blitz pick up in that
particular point. If he doesn't do that, because that route
took fourteen to fifteen yards to happen. If that doesn't happen,
that ball isn't completed. So you're talking about a guy
who who can do it in multiple ways. You know,
they split him out, they throw it to him, he
climbs a ladder, go get the football. You hand it
(13:01):
to them on you know the fifteen yard line jump
cuts ninety degrees, gets north and south like, how do
you see a hole over here? That's stupid, that's just alien,
like you can miss.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
And then gets contacted the ten yard line, runs through
those tackles and then oh yeah, let me just do
a little bit some of at the end of the
ball end of it and just you know, head top
on them, just you know, just just fan on his head, like.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Come on, I mean, like that stuff is unreal and
we see it every weekend.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Like I mentioned, if those two guys are rolling, it's
hard for you to say, all right, let's play coverage
and not allow Drake to be. It's not like how
to be because guess what, those guys can hurt you
just as much as they can. So it's fun to
watch those guys get going.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Let's give credit work credits due a little bit to
rack in that there was so much conversation about formations
and a lot of this that's being talked about. Many
don't understand what's going on from a from an ex
as an other standpoint, and so there was criticism about
this formation or about what this guy's playing, or that
you're selling in your vanilla too.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
But there were so.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Many little nuances that Zach built in to what Washington
was going to do. From a defensive standpoint, Washington was
a single high safety team. They want to they want
to show you umbrella, but they want to rock somebody
else in the box. They want to play single high
and they want to play man coverage. That lends itself
(14:28):
to making play and they have to protect. But that
lends itself the shot plays and things down the field,
and it lends itself to building opportunities for guys. And
Zach did a great job with design little short motions,
stack formations with London and Pitt's doing some things two
two on two combinations. Pitts catches the big ball early
(14:51):
in the game because Washington messes up the switch as
Drake comes across in motion, he stacks behind him. The
two guys jump Drake, Pitts gets in behind and he
hits him on the big play early in the football game.
He also designed a stack look or a bunch look
that included Jean Robinson in all honesty the first drive
of the game. Maybe Michael Pennix gave up on it
(15:12):
a little bit too early because because Bejon comes open
down the sideline and he oh.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
There he is, and he was a little bit short
with the throw or that would have been a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But that that stack look resulted in probably another forty
or fifty yards worth of plays.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Because of the design.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's about the touchdown to the first one that we
got to a receiver to drink. I mean, you got
stack for you got guys going like this and he
just sits there right now, I mean le.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Little zone buster there.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And then how about you know, there was so much
conversation about twelve personnel where we got one back two
tight ends of the game for the Minnesota game.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
How about flipping the script and going twenty one. He
had a number of.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Two back, one tight end sets in this game where
you had Bajon out on the flat catching the football.
We knew he had over one hundred yards receiving and
Algiers banging on people like shots talking. The ingenuity within
what we do offensively maybe lost on some people. Go back,
if you have a chance to go look at the tape.
A lot of ingenuity, a lot of creative stuff that
(16:10):
Zach came up with to attack this Washington defense. Now
it'll be a different set of circumstances when you look
at Buffalo and how Buffalo plays, and we'll talk about
them next week. But I just thought that was pretty cool.
I need to be pointed out, right.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, first first running back receiver duo with one hundred
receiving yards. It's nineteen eighty one. Who are they? Man,
can't help you? Come on, man, come on.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
William Andrees okay, Alfred Jenkins.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Okay, see you knew you knew it. That's why I
just you and.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
You you weren't even alive, so that's true.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Later later, okay, se can you tell me about that game? Yeah,
that one he's talking about.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
No, that's all I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Art.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You gave Zach Robinson some kudos for his play calling,
his scheme and getting guys open, because at the end
of the day, that's what this game is about. Everybody's
so athletic. How do you use the pieces to get
people open, because otherwise every throw is going to be
a contested catch, right. But I also want to give
some attention to the big boys up front, because it's
(17:12):
easy for us to look at our rundowns and see
and see Pennix, Bijon London pits. It doesn't ever say
anything about the offensive line. Okay, and this offensive line
has given up a total of five sacks this entire season,
which is fifth best in the National Football League. This
offensive line is also opening up holes for guys like
Jon Robinson to do what he does each and every week,
(17:34):
for Algier to get the yards that he does. So
to continue to let those guys eat up front, because
that's what's going to make everything work. If Michael Pennix
is under duress throwing the football, he ain't gonna be
able to get the ball to pits in London and
everything else. So for those guys, they need to get
love when it's there. Now. Last week, there was no
(17:55):
love to give out. Okay, when you get shut out,
there ain't no love to give out. But sometimes you
got to give credit where credit's due. And quarterbacks don't
throw for over three hundred yards if they don't have time, right,
if they can't see open receivers, son.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Or accentuate what you're saying, Yeah, I went. We had
to talk to We were trying to find guys to
talk to after the game last week. And so who
you're gonna pick out? You can pick out some better guy, Jake, would.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You go, would you we just gotta shut out Jake.
Would you go talk to radio guys. Yeah, okay, he
goes in.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I talked to you, I said, Jake, I promise when
we light it up on offic I'm gonna come get
We'll come get.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I went in. We did.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
We didn't talk to any offenseve lineman after the game
last year this week, so I went over Jake sitting
in his chair. He goes, didn't talk to any.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Just funny, we scoring thirty four, got nothing to say
the offensive line.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
I'm sorry, Jake, we go get him when the.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Things are going, bro.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
But Arch is sitting in the back of his mind saying, look,
well we scored thirty four points. I'm sorry, but the
people don't want to hear from the offensive line. They
want to hear from the star.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
You are dead on not doing that. So for that,
that's a great call.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So yeah, I mean, got to give them some credit
and listen, just for comparison, they've given up five sacks
this year. The Vikings have given up eighteen sacks. Like
sometimes you need to think about what else is going
on in the league. Well, if it's if they've only
given up five rules everybody else only given up eight. No, no, no,
there's been a team that are getting sacked left and right. Okay,
So a lot of that has to do with the
(19:26):
offensive line. Some of that has to do with Michael Pennix. Yes,
he's in a mobile quarterback, he's getting away from some
pressures and stuff. But a lot of kudos goes to them. Guys.
Let's talk a little bit about the defense. Not necessarily
a dominating performance, but it was good enough to win.
What did you see defensively in this game that were
some building blocks and maybe some areas that still have
to get cleaned up a little bit.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Well, I think let's start with the areas that need
to be cleaned. We need to try to eliminate explosive.
If they had six explosives in the game, and explosives
I count fifteen yards or more to look at that
base on what the Falcons did. Falcons had ten plays
of fifteen yards more in the game. That shows yet
explosively they were offensively. Atlantic came in with thirteen in
the first three games. You had ten in this game.
(20:07):
So the defense you need to continue. You want to
keep that down in a four three four range because
they're going to get explosive that teams, they're going to
make some plays. I think that something you pointed out
a lot rock is an area that this team has
struggled in the last several seasons, and that's getting people
off the field on third down or in the conversion
(20:28):
down situation. I thought they did a great job. They
were one of eight washing it was one to eight
on third down, throwing the two for two on fourth down,
So conversion down situation because they went for it two
times three for ten. That's winning football. You can get
people off the field, right. And then the other piece
of it, I think you mentioned early on four field goals.
You gave it four field goals, so it was And
(20:50):
I know Mike Cues talked a little bit about this
in an interview. I heard him talk about He says,
you know, you want to be just a suffocating defense
and dominant, but there is going to be have to
be some that ben don't break mentality for us, And
he talked about how that's something they want in their minds,
that hey, we'll give up a few things here or there,
but we're not going to let you get in the
end zone. And ultimately we're gonna win on third down.
(21:11):
I thought the day they did the key things that
help you win and get you to the playoffs and
give you a chance to win. The whole thing is
win moments, win on conversion down, win in the red zone.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And they did that this weekend.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah. Shock, I'm gonna turn this over to you because
this is kind of offense and defense. But what I
would say is another impressive moment, and I actually set
it to the guys downstairs during the game is fourth quarter.
Falcons get the ball back at eight forty eight. Okay,
And I said to the guys downstairs, I said, if
you want to be a different team, I said, your
(21:43):
offense puts the nail in the coffin here by stringing
together a long drive. You really got to put the
pressure on Washington that if they get the football back,
they don't have a whole lot of time. So what
does Atlanta do. They get the ball back at eight
forty eight, they put together a fourteen play drive that
take six fifty one off the clock, forces Washington to
use their last two timeouts. Yes, they settle for a
(22:05):
field goal, but they were running the football because they
wanted to make sure they kept the clock running, right.
So there are certain like we always talk about situationally
smart football, right, and you always go to third down
and red zone and so on and so forth, But
sometimes the situations are go win a football game, right.
So what I'm going to throw this to you shock
(22:26):
is how impressive was that drive And then the fact
that the defense buckled down enough as Washington was trying
to make a run at the end to just force
the field goal. And then they got to go for
a desperation on sidekick because that's kind of their last hope.
But that, to me, those last two drives kind of
signified what happened in that game, and it was a
difference in a mind shift.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I think the mindset of having to go get it
is something that I think a lot of teams they
strive to want. There are a lot of teams who
had end of a ball game you say, you know what,
we have to go run the football. The other team
knows you want to run the clock. And there's a
difference between situations of the game where you want to
run the football. We talk about balance all the time,
(23:07):
but this was a situation where you needed to run
the football and you were able to do it twelve
runs and then you talk about okay, here comes third down,
here comes that critical down where Okay, if you don't
convert this, they get the football back. How about your
your big time players, Penning stands in there, rips wanted
to drake over there, drakes unbelievable catch over there on
the sideline, to bring that ball in, throw the throw
(23:28):
the coyle. I mean you're talking about in those moments,
stepping up and playing the biggest football of the ball game.
That's what you like to see if you want to
go finish ball games. That's what good teams do. They
find ways to go win ball games at the end
when maybe that team understands what the situation is and
you gotta stop them defensively like you mentioned Ben, but
not break.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Yeah, those dudes get paid. Those just make a lot
of money. Over there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
They gonna make some plays, They gonna scheme me up.
They gonna have some big time play. I mean to
throw Mariota makes in the back of the end zone.
The Deebo Samuel on fourth down is a monster player.
It's a very very low percenter stro You find a
way to go get it and they make the play. Okay, yeah,
but then you have opportunity to come back and try
to close this ball game out, and you do so.
I thought the two linebackers in this ball game continue
(24:14):
to rehab it. Kate Ellis one time, obviously you know
you're just waiting for Marcus Mario at one point his
ball game to pull it. They run so much of
the zone reader, so much of the read, and then
he finally pulls it, and fifty five is standing.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
There like why why would you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And he just smothers him and makes the play. Yeah,
Mario to guy one time, it made a big time
play on third down runout. But for the most part
you kept him under wraps. How many times you called
the offer name? I mean, come on, we came into
the last few weeks, say no aj Terrell, Oh man,
we hope we can hold up over there. The offers
done a fabulous job over there, holding that other side
(24:56):
down and doing a really good job. So it's been
fun to watch those guys go. But and also, how
about your young guys player really well, how about I
got Wats gets another interception, you know on the back end,
going to get the football like a receiver. You know
what I mean, young guys, you know, Jayalen Walker, continue
to pressure. Seeing those guys play well, Bowman, you know,
(25:16):
looking like a guy who's been the league three four,
five years. This defense is very talented, and they're showing
it in those key keys moments, and you're seeing those
guys kind of grow up the younger guys I'm telling.
But also all these guys come together and playing really well.
It's pretty fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, it was like, what was the first player that
one of the first players of the game they tried
to run jet sweep with with Deebo Samuel and who's
writing his hip pocket Billy Bowman. Yeah, Billy Bowman tracks
him to the sideline, turns you back inside, and Divine
Diablo sweeps him off his feet.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So excellent calls shot.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So that's that's a little bit of the recap of
the game.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Let's take a step back here and let's do a
little temperature check. Okay, because as we talked about, the
Falcons are going to be on there by this week,
So the Falcons are off. We'll get to the bye
week here in a second. But I would like to
call this kind of the concl illusion of the first quarter. Now,
back when we were playing, it was a four sixteen
game season, so when you played four games, it was
the first quarter. Okay, so now we got a seventeenth game,
(26:10):
but it's the bye week, and so we're still going
to call it the first quarter has passed us. So Arch,
give us kind of your temperature check on where you
think this team is through the first quarter of the season.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, I think you're still searching for who you're going
to be offensively. I think you've seen some moments, and
certainly this one is a great one to go to
bye week, you know, to be able to feel good
about what you're going to bring to the table. But hey,
it doesn't get any easier. It comes the defending MVP
and his team a week from Monday night or two
weeks from Monday night. You're going to see him here
in our building. So I think it's got to certainly
(26:43):
electrify the crowd that they're going to be able to
see Buffalo come in, but get a chance to see
your young team play against Buffalo. I think the one
that I want to point out to, and we were
just talking about defense, if you've held four consecutive opponents
for less.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Than three hundred yards offense. That doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
This was the biggest offensive day so far that you've seen,
was Washington had two hundred ninety four yards of offense.
I mean, if you're averaging less than three hundred yards
of offense in a season, you're probably going to be
picking first in the NFL draft. And you've limited the
last the four offenses you've seen so far, all of
(27:21):
them under three hundred yards. That includes Baker Mayfield in
his group, you know, and that was that was sub
two point fifty I believe. So that part of it,
I think is being lost. And you're also you know,
you're trying to keep people off the scoreboard. I think
you're winning moments. So I would point as much as
we want to point to that young group on offense
and how fun it was this weekend. Just the steadiness
(27:41):
with which Jeff Oulbricks team is playing with on defense.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Shock, What's what's your temperature here? Through through four games?
What you've seen obviously the law, the kind of the
back and forth a little bit, but at least going
into the bye week with some more positivity.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think what Archie has mentioned is probably where a
lot of people are because you've seen a mixed back,
you've seen the really good moments. You see moments that
you're like, man, I wish they could have that back.
I wish this team would look like this. And I
thought last week was a good representation of what this
team could be, a good representation of what they're striving
to be. And you hope that's only something you can
(28:19):
build on. Like you mentioned, going into a bye week,
it feels so much better going into it playing the
way you played that you can build on that going
into obviously another big time matchup. The one thing that
I love about this team is the accountability factor. I
think after each game, whether it's been up or down,
they've held themselves accountable for the way they played. And
(28:40):
just listening to the guys talking to the locker room,
just hearing some of the things that you see from
the team. There wasn't like a big hoorah after this ballgame.
It was more of a this is what we expected,
this is how we should play. This is not like, yeah,
we're excited, we're glad we finally put these something together.
(29:01):
It was like, this is something we should have been done.
This is what we expected to do. So I love
that about this team is that they still feel like
there's so much more room to grow and that this
wasn't just an anomaly. This is what they thought should
happen when it came into the ballgame and how they
should play.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
One of the things that I thought about was, you know,
this team, like, what is what can this team be?
Especially after what you saw against Washington, And my thought was,
this is a playoff caliber team when they play to
their capabilities and to your point, arch in the National
Football League, you're not going to score thirty four points
(29:36):
every week, But could that be twenty four? Can that
be twenty seven? Can that be a seventeen point offense?
But your defense goes out and plays stifling and your
win a game seventeen to six. Right, But when they
play to their capabilities with so many playmakers on offense,
with the ball skills and now that the youth and
the pass rush movement on the defensive side, with a
(29:58):
guy that is called the plays on the defensive side,
it's had a lot of success in the National Football League.
It's hard to sit here and say, to your point,
they're gonna score thirty four points they're gonna put u
four hundred yards offense. You're gonna keep every team under
three hundred. This is the NFL. Everybody's got dudes on
their team. But if they play to their capabilities, I
think it's definitely a playoff caliber team. Now, I didn't
(30:20):
say that they're gonna end up sweeping. I didn't say
they're gonna end up getting to the championship. It's a
playoff caliber And how are you playing at the end
of the season. If you can get into the dance right.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Wreck you do a really good job of directing the
traffic with us and throwing stuff at us, I would
love to, you know, take a little detour, take a
dtour and go down this rout. Now, it's obviously the
third phase you just talked about. Obviously, where's this team at?
That third phase is a big part of where this
team at. We saw Parker Romo respond this week. But
(30:53):
where would you say this team is on that third
phase because we know, as we've seen it can win
or lose ball games for you through games where that
phase is with this team.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
To be honest with you, guys, it's got to be better.
They still give up a big return again last week
and field position. I think field position in this era
of the NFL has come even more important. And the
reason why is kickers are kicking field goals. Like now
as soon as you get past midfield, you're almost in
rage right where when we were playing guys, it was
like he get hit one from fifty for fifty, dude,
(31:25):
Now it's sixty sixty five or you're not even in
the ballpark. So what I'm saying is if they continue
to give up big returns on special teams, you're now
basically one or two first downs away from giving up points, right,
So that area has to get better.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Things you're starting to see kickoff return and kick off
evolve with this new landing zone right how teams are
approaching it by kicking the ball. They're purposely putting it
in the landing zone. It doesn't have a whole lot
of hangtime on it now and they're forcing teams to
make plays. But if you don't still have the same
details the coverage lane responsibilities you saw last week, McCaffrey
(32:00):
just bust one right up the middle and all of
a sudden you give up a big return. We saw
what happened with the field goal kicking that still has
to get more consistent. Okay, I think Bradley Pinion's been
doing a really good job. He's going to be a weapon.
He's going to continue to help them change field position
in the punt game. But if we're being honest, through
the first quarter of the season, the temperature there is
probably a sixty degrees like, it's got to get warmer,
(32:22):
it's got to get hotter. On special teams. If they
want to be a playoff caliber team, it's got to
be all three phases. And it's still been a little
bit inconsistent.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah, it's been interesting too, because it seems like it's fluctuated,
and that's we came in here talking about, Hey, we're
flying like this. We want to continue to get better
each each week. But it seems like that piece of it,
and on the offense too, has done this. But there's
been you know, really good in returns, oh, really good
in coverage, but not so good in return and vice versa.
(32:53):
How much rack is it are off? Our special teams
coordinators really still trying to figure this out. Oh yeah,
and if you do have a guy like we saw
two weekends ago against Carolina that kind of has that
fu knuckleball? Yeah figured out? You know, it's almost like
Phil Nekro where that gay come from?
Speaker 5 (33:15):
No, how much are they still trying to figure this out?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
This has been very interesting watching this evolution guys, because
it was like the first year that they did this,
I still felt like they were just kind of kicking
the ball in the end zone, right, like we haven't
figured out how.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
But now I think the more time that they're having,
the more stuff that's getting on tape, the knuckleballs, right,
the more time they're able to kind of strategize how
you can be a difference maker. Now special teams coaches
are like, nah, we're not going to approach it like this,
We're going to kick the ball in the landing zone.
And now they're playing with like kickers are also having
to reformat their brain because they're used to hitting the
(33:49):
ball hard. They're used to always just blasting the ball
like that's how you get in the NFL kick long
field goals, be able to kick the ball out of
the end zone, right, And now you're changing their whole
world if you will, by Hey, we want you to
kind of shank it right. We want this ball to
hit it about the ten yard line with some funky
bounces on it make it difficult for them to return it. Oh,
by the way, all of our guys are right on
(34:11):
top of them by that point.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I watched the game of the day and they kicked
it and it landed right in the land zone but
went in and it got to ball onto twenty yard.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I was like, this looks weird.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It looks it used to be everybody right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Now you see everybody coming out to the thirty thirty
five whatever it is, and you know, get good returns.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But it was just just weird to see that.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
And it's interesting too that what you're saying, Rack is
the kicker has to be a little bit more versatile.
It used to be, like you said, pound it pounded,
and now I've got to I know that. I talked
to Bradley Pinion, who does it. Most are kicking off,
and he said, I really had to work on trying
to do that little bunt kick, you know, And now
I've got to try to work on something that's not
(34:52):
just tumbling in over in which is easy to catch.
Now I got to get it spinning sideways or something
like that and falling in that song, and it's like,
you know, you're trying to hit that webshot into.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
The green, can't go over the green.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
You know, I got to hit it their pin high,
so they're they're trying to It's really made it difficult
for the kicker, which I think is kind of cool.
Sure in all actuality, make you know you're not just
pound a past. You got to show me some versatility, Yeah,
what you can do?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, exactly. So I think that's something that we're going
to continue to see evolved throughout the course of the season.
But but be quite honest, it's got to be a
little bit better as far as the Falcons are concerned.
All Right, guys, last kind of topic we're going to
talk about is bye week. Let's talk about how the
Falcons use this bye week because here's I think it's
the bye week can be a gift and a curse
depending on where it falls in the season. Okay, and
(35:39):
in my opinion this this year, the where it falls
could be a little bit of a curse. If you
have your bye week really early or really late, I
think it can be an issue because you either got
a grind on the front end or you got a
grind on the back end, and Atlanta's gonna have a
grind on the back end. They're gonna have thirteen straight games,
including one international game, and a lot of times with
international game. As you get a little breather, you get
(36:01):
a week off or maybe you play the following Thursday.
That's not gonna happen with Atlanta, So they get an
opportunity arts to maybe get a little healthier early on
a j. Terrell's obviously the biggest name that comes to mind, Mody,
but Mooney as well. He's been banged up early on
and again this past weekend. But how do you feel
this team needs to navigate the bye week to set
them up for success? I would I would almost say
(36:23):
second half, But it's almost second three fourths of the year.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, I mean they've been They've been going since what
mid July, and so you're going every week. You did
have that week I guess where we don't have a
preseason game anymore, so you sprinkle that maybe that week
right there in Labor Day you get a little bit
of break there.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
I think it sucks.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I think thee why court is is not very good.
You know, and I agree with you. You you'd like
to have it mid season somewhere, not to mention the
fact you're going to get a divisional opponent in Tampa
in November in a short week. So not only do
you get thirteen year old, you get short weing. Now
you get the mini bye after that, but maybe the
die's cast at that point, so you got to you
(37:05):
got to make sure that you're going to maintain revolutions
and and win here in this long stretch where you
don't have a buy. I think it's interesting to me guy,
and and I don't think it. I just said I
don't like it. I'd rather have it in the middle.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
So what do you do with it?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
A lot of the guys are doing what you'd expect
them to do, recharge the battery. I think the question
here is and you, I'd be interested to see what
you guys thought with the different coaches that you guys
have played under. Uh I did we didn't have this opportunity,
So tell me what you wanted coaches to do, because
essentially what they're gonna do here is they're giving the
guys the week off. Okay, it's early in the year.
(37:41):
All of a sudden, you're gonna get away from football,
which we charged the battery. And I've talked to a
number of guys that a couple of guys are gonna
go to New York, see a couple of shows, you know,
spend time with their family, spend time here in Atlanta
with the family, go to the beach, whatever. What do
What do you guys think about? Because Smitty, I remember,
Smitty would give them the week off, much like Raheem
has I remember Coach Mora, he kept everybody. You kept
(38:02):
people here and you practiced on Thursday. You guys tell me.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, I mean I think there's there's definitely a number
of different ways. At the end of the day, I
think you have to let these guys be pros and
they've got to manage their week appropriately.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
The young guys.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, exactly, because I heard somebody ask John Robinson a
question like what are you doing for the bye week?
And he now I don't know if this is true,
but he said, I think I'm going to stay here.
Like he said that, he may not go out a
lot of times. They want to go back to their
alma mater and they want to watch a football game.
They want to go on the sidelines. You get a
chance to see a lot of the former players.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Bad.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, but so many of these Here's the thing, these
guys are grown men. Many of these guys are married,
they have children, and not to mention the fact that
they're extremely wealthy. Okay, the money now is just crazy.
So for them, I mean getting a first class flight
to go somewhere, or dare I say, get a private
jet to go somewhere. It's not really a big deal
(38:57):
for these guys now. But you just got to trust
them to be pro and understand. I think, guys, the
fact that they had the Carolina game, I think is
enough medicine for everybody to remember that felt like we
have to focus on the task at hand because you
don't ever want to get in that situation again.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Shock.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
You don't ever want to have to answer media availability
after you gets smoked by somebody in the national.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
That's a really good point because when you're hurting that manner,
it doesn't really go away. And I think after a
good win like you had, I think it kind of
feeds you a little bit more to like, you know,
I would rather have that feeling as opposed to what
we saw two weeks ago. But I think you make
up a good point too about being grown and understanding.
I think the other part about it is head coach
knowing what kind of team he has, what kind of
(39:43):
players he has. But well, those guys still Okay, I
give these guys four or five days away, will they
completely get away and not really, you know, worry about
football the way, we still have guys who are gonna
go work out, Guys still gonna do stuff. But I
love the fact that, you know, during his time, a
lot of guys I want to be to take their
kids to school, to pick them up. I want to
be able to, you know, spend time with I want
(40:04):
to go catch a movie with them. You know, you're
here all the time at the facility and now you
get to, you know, all Daddy's home. That's a really
great feeling for a lot of guys be able to
have those moments. So I think a lot of guys
will feed into that and it won't be the extravagant thing.
But then there's also hey, I need new scenery, and
you can understand that as well. Like you mentioned, these
guys are wealthy enough to be able to go do that.
(40:25):
But I think to the point what you mentioned that
Carolina game still sits right there at the frontal lobe
of man. We were really embarrassed. I don't ever want
to be a part of that again. So I got
to make sure I do my part to make sure
when we do come back, then I'm ready to go.
So it's like you mentioned, a lot of coaches did
a lot of different ways. I was with that Moril
(40:45):
crew where you know, we were here to Thursday, maybe
got out by noon on Thursday, but you still work
through some stuff and then you went and had a
couple of days with whatever you wanted to do. So
I think it's just knowing your team messing and how
they know they're gonna respond.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
I would imagine, you know, I haven't played in this era,
if you will, but the technology is a whole lot different,
the ability to text and you know, send guys social
media metches. Probably still gonna be sending guys little clips
on over sure. Yeah, here's the Buffalo defense. Just in
case you're not doing too much. Here's a couple of
looks that I saw that you might want to. I'm
sure there's probably gonna be a little bit of it
to do that shock.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Would you be able to unplug. Say you're the quarterback,
would you be able to unplug? And so you'd be
looking at Buffalo So you're Michael Pennix, I'll be on there.
Are you looking at Buffalo tape?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
There's there's times, yeah, yeah, I mean there's only so
much you could do, you know, all day whatever the
the thing you're doing. There's let me take thirty minutes
out of my time to take a look at a
couple of third down situations. No, here's you know, here's
twenty minutes to look at what they do in the
red zone. Yeah, it would be hard for me as
the quarterback to just completely not look at anything because
(41:52):
our mind is not No, you can't do it. I
don't think Michael Pennock says that. I mean, I don't
think anybody will absolutely just totally detached from it. There's
gonna be a little things here and there that you're
thinking about. But yeah, no way, Yeah you might find it.
You might be at a family barbecue, right, say, where'd
Michael go? You go over and he's looking at it.
He's in a back room, he's looking at his phone.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
He's either That's just the way our minds are wired,
you know. And I know you do the same.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Thanks, say, let me take a little peak at this,
take a little peak at that. I got a little
freak time. I'm gonna take a little peak. Yeah, I
don't think and don't worry about that. As fans, these guys,
albeit they're unplugging, they're not completely unplugged, right, Okay, they
know that there's a lot more to take care of.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
The sad part is every once in a while I
like to date ourselves. Is that when we were playing,
we started with a VCR tapes to watch tape, and
then we we morphed into DVDs. Okay, no, no, okay.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
You know you want to go ahead with the with
the reels sixteen milliveter field.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
Started for me and they break.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Damn it.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
I have to have tape and you can taping it up.
I just want to watch the Can I just watch it?
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Why does it keep breaking?
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Now it's as simple as pushing send and it gets
pushed to a phone, to an iPad, to whatever else
of technology these guys have all at their fingertips. All right,
that's going to wrap it up for the Falcons Audible
presented by AT and T. As we mentioned no game
this weekend. We will be back next week to preview
the Buffo Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (43:22):
Bills Monday night matchup. Folks coming back to buy in
prime time. But until then, make sure that you continue
to follow us. You know, every once in a while,
I watch these people that are like have their own
YouTube channels, and they always say, Hey, if you like
this content, make sure you push the subscribe button and
like it.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
So we can continue to offer content like this. By
the way, I'm not getting paid on any of the
amount of subscribers that we get, but the Falcons would
truly appreciate it. And you know what else, You constantly
get updated when guys like us put out podcasts or
the rest of the folks within here in the organization.
On any time we have stuff about the Atlanta Falcon,
you'll get it coming right to your device anymore. Hey,
(44:06):
enjoy your football weekend. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty,
whether it's college, whether it's NFL other NFL action Shock
Kentucky this weekend, correct.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Wildcats coming noon. We have to avenge.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I heard Kirby Smart say in his press conference say
that it's always a physical game, always hockey, always They
both like it.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
Stoops stoops.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Row. I don't know. Everybody can't be on the FEEDO
of the second.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
It's all good, So enjoy your football Falcons free weekend,
but not too much because you've got to have some
anticipation for us to come back. We'll be back next
week for the FACON Doutible presented by AT and T.
Thanks so much for joining US Falcons with a thirty
four to twenty seven victory before their bye week over
the Washington Commanders. We'll see you next week, everybody,
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Speaker 2 (00:29):
He's into He is like, start great, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
You guy can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
The fellows are back of the Falcons Audible presented by
A T and T and it's you know. I always
say that we're not more excited than we are in
any other weeks because our job is to kind of
just float like this right, call them how we see it.
So even though the Falcons won.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Last week, we might have a little bit more smile
on our face.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
However, we give it to you, whether it's good, whether
it's bad. What it happened to be good this week?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Sot'll give you the good.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There's just a little bit more to talk about. When
the Atlanta Falcons play a whole lot better is they
come away with a thirty four to twenty seventh victory
at home against the Washington Commanders. And we are going
to start with DJ Shockley, Ladies and Jada favorite quote
unquote game on the Falcons audible. Okay, this is the
one that is the most challenging for him because shakas
(01:28):
he bose.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Okay, and we have to.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
We have he has got to describe this game.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
When have I went over there? I mean, I don't
I don't stand when it's happened before. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Three words describe the win the game, and three words
ready go.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
You ready?
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Ready? What you got?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
What we expected?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
What we expect? Did you see how he kind of
like he was so proud of himself. He went like
a different voice, like what we expected. Yeah, you gotta
you gotta change the tony All right now you said
good job.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
By the way, don't want me to describe it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Now, I watch what happens. Now you can get verbose.
Now you can explain what you mean by what we expected.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Listen, listen to mister mister ah Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
To be honest, I felt this would be a game
that they would respond. I felt this was the offense
we expected to see when we started to season, and
I was glad to see the performers come out that
I thought we all expected to see. We all been
around this team long enough to see what their makeup was.
And then when you get, you know, punched in the
(02:43):
face we saw two weeks ago. If you had any
gumption about yourself, you have any pride about yourself, you're
gonna show up. And I thought they would show up.
So it was what I.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Was probably should said what I expected.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Maybe everybody else didn't expect that, but what I expected
with this team showing up.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Why all right, Arch, you're on the hot seat. Three words,
three words on same page, on same page.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Does that work? Shock You're you're trying to figure out
if I said three words. No, I didn't. I didn't
do it. Now I just we There were so many
things that were talked about last week.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We talked about it on this here, It was talked
about throughout Sportstock Radio here in Atlanta, and about the
fact that there was dysfunction offensively, whether it was communication issues,
it was getting lined up, whether it was where you
were supposed to be on your routes, and people lost
their jobs because guys maybe weren't playing at the right
level and somebody else, somebody got blamed for it, whether
(03:38):
the quarterback was driving with his with his receivers, you know,
the one thing you could count on was the matrix.
He was going to do what he needed to do.
And that's mister Robinson, Jean Robinson. The rest of it
was kind of dysfunctional. On same page, I thought that
we saw what this offense can be when their synergy
between the play caller which he made it adjustment, came
(04:00):
down on the field. That looked like that paid dividends.
With his communication with not just the quarterback, and you
talked about this last week's shock.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
He can talk to everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You know, and when you're on the headset, sometimes you
just get the quarterback and that's it. But he could
walk up and down, he could talk to the old line,
a couple of points you want to make out to
the old line, the running back, so wide, receivers, tight ends.
Zach was on the field to be able to do
all that kind of stuff. And then obviously the intimate
conversation he could have with with his quarterback and then
even interact with maybe Kirk Cousins and East and stick
(04:31):
who are there and seeing things as well. Just more
opportunities to be on same page.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Love it all right, So we had what we expected,
what I expected on same page. You guys, ready for mine.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Dreas, this should be pretty good, I know, right.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Ready, ready for this. Rose to the challenge?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
You know why?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Because to the is one word negative.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I just made it up.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
It is he tg what to the to.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Rose? But you got to be from the land of
ten thousand weeks we're talking.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
We were talking before the show about dialect and Southern dialect,
about certain people's shops and saying when he was a rookie,
some people couldn't understand him in the hudd because they
coudn't understand his Southern accent. To that's one of those
Southern things. Okay, rose to the to the challenge. Okay,
and here's the reason why. Okay, let me explain that
was actually my third key to the game last week was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Rise to the challenge.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
We always talk about rise up here in Atlanta. Okay,
but there was not a whole Yes, you could sit
here and talk about football stuff that needed to happen
to the game. I think all three of us understood
that the biggest thing that had to happen against Washington
was for Atlanta to answer the bell. Okay, if you
want to call it a different phrase, I should used
that one. That's actually three words. I didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Combine them now, but I liked it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I just invented the new Southern.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
I don't think the Southerners are gonna cover claim that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I don't think so.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
But it's okay, It's okay with it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I'm gonna sell it. I'm gonna sell it to the Okay.
But that was it was. It was one of those
kind of intangible things where it just meant like players, coaches,
everybody involved had to just go out there and be different,
Like it just had to be a completely different performance, mindset, attitude. Obviously,
football stuff had to happen, execution making plays, catching the ball,
(06:22):
throwing the ball, making tackle, scoring points, right, But at
the end of the day, this was more about a
pride game, right is are you going to go out
there and play with pride and passion?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You like it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
You went Willie Beaman on us pride?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
All right?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So before we get into all the coaching movies and football.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Is trying to those movie references.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So that's our game and that's the reason why we
like to play. Thanks Jared for putting that on a rundown,
because we always find a way to have fun with it.
It usually ends up going off the rails at some point.
But let's talk a little bit more about the game
offense played. And fantastic is a hard word to use, guys,
because I think all of us would agree. When you're
actually in the NFL, you don't ever say that you
(07:08):
played fantastic, like you played good. We could always do
something better. Here's the thing I will tell you, guys,
and Arch I'm gonna start with you. For the first
three games of the season, Atlanta had scored three touchdowns. Okay,
but Jean Robinson receiving touchdown, Pennox rush touchdown, Algier rush touchdown,
and seven field goals.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
That's good. That is not good?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
No, okay, and obviously none of them happened against Carolina. Sure, okay,
against Washington four touchdowns, two field goals, So more touchdowns
in one game than they had in the previous three games.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So my question to you is from the offense, is
this what they're capable of? Is this completely out of
the norm or was the last three games just nowhere
near the expectation level?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I think this is this is a little bit more
of the threshold we expect them to play at.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Expect you expect what you're going to get.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I do think there's there'll be a leveling of the
mean to think you're going to go out and score
thirty four points a game, you're going to lead the league.
And we've seen one team go back to sixteen that
was close to that, that would play at that level.
Is this young group capable of playing at that level?
And you mentioned is this their capability? Yeah, definitely. You
couple that with some stingy defense, and I'm talking about
(08:22):
being backed up where you get a gig big kick return,
a turnover, whatever it may be, and to limit the
other team to just four field goals. Then that's kind
of the synergy you're looking for from both sides of
the football, but speaking specifically about the offensive side of
the ball, you want everybody involved, and Michael was able
and Zach was able to get everybody involved. You know,
(08:44):
Kyle's making plays, Drake's making plays. The matrix is making plays.
The bowling ball of Razor blades is making plays, you know,
and now that if you can you know, Casey Washington
makes a big catch along the sideline. Darnel Mooney did
a really good job of widening and increase where Michael
get the ball out with pressure in his face. Need
to see a little bit more from the other ancillary parts.
(09:06):
But man, the offensive line played at a high level.
Capability is probably a good word. Now, how many times
here's the challenge. Now, how many times can.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
You push that threshold? Can you get there?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Because you're gonna put a lot of stress on a
lot of teams, and I'm not talking about just the
defenses that you're gonna face. You're gonna put a lot
of stress on other team's offenses if you have the
ability to go do that, and you're gonna put your
defense in some really good pass rush situations, similar to
what we saw about a decade ago Shock.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
There was excuse me, so many really good performances in
this game. Pennix completes seventy seven percent of his passes
over three hundred yards, does throw the one interception. Jehan
Robinson twenty one touches in the game sets a career
high in receiving yards. You mentioned Drake London eight for
one hundred and ten pits, five catches. Pits now, by
the way, has twenty receptions this year, almost half of
(09:59):
what he had all of last year, number one, number two.
Last year through four games he had eight catches. Okay,
so he's more than double that.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And think about how he's playing raft. Yeah, I mean
think about the attitude, the body language. He scores the
touchdown and we get kind of the Ray Lewis you know,
show your chest type deal. Just in the play he
makes in that final drive where he gets interfered with it,
snatches the ball. He just snatched it out of the air.
That's my football. Just the attitude he's playing an arch.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Those are the plays like when I'm watching it, I said,
that's what he has to do, Like he is a
matchup nightmares, right, And sometimes it's like your quarterback can
say I'm going to throw this ball up in his
vicinity and I'm going to trust that he's going to
bail me out because number one, he's that athletic and
number two he's just got so much length. So that
was the first thing that came to my mind, is
(10:50):
those are the catches that he has to make for us,
right because of what he brings to the table. So
of all the offensive things that we talked about, shock,
what was most impressive to you watching the game?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
That's tough. I mean, you guys laid it out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And I think day one of training camp we heard
Michael Pennick say, did y'all see me throw the coppits?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Did y'all see that? Y'all saw that, right?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So I think there was a little foreshadowing of this
guy trusts number eight to do what he does, and
we've seen him make those kind of plays in the past,
but to see him have, like you mentioned, that attitude
is different.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
When that guy of that size wants to play that way.
Who's gonna stop him? You can't stop him. It ain't
gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
But I think, obviously the thing that sticks out to
me is those two dudes that stand next to Michael
Pennocks Junior. If they are rolling, how do you stop
his offense? Because it opens up everything else. The run
Tyler Iger makes to get in the end zone. He
(11:53):
goes and attacks the dB and runs through him like
please come.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
That's what he was looking.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
It looked like he was like I want contact immediately
makes the guy miss in the backfield, then the speed
to get there, and.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Then the finish.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Dude's watching the tape like, okay, when I see two five,
I gotta make sure I bring everything, and I.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Might want to think about a different way of doing it.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So you got him doing what he does. He had
thirteen fourteen carrias in the ball game. And then you
talk about Ar said the matrix. I mean, it's unreal.
Every week we say can you believe he did that?
Like we still are has a fathom about what this
guy can do with the ball in his hands. The
play that Arch talked about that gets it to Mooney,
(12:40):
he has to step up and fill that gap and
he has to have a blitz pick up in that
particular point. If he doesn't do that, because that route
took fourteen to fifteen yards to happen. If that doesn't happen,
that ball isn't completed. So you're talking about a guy
who who can do it in multiple ways. You know,
they split him out, they throw it to him, he
climbs a ladder, go get the football. You hand it
(13:01):
to them on you know the fifteen yard line jump
cuts ninety degrees, gets north and south like, how do
you see a hole over here? That's stupid, that's just alien,
like you can miss.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
And then gets contacted the ten yard line, runs through
those tackles and then oh yeah, let me just do
a little bit some of at the end of the
ball end of it and just you know, head top
on them, just you know, just just fan on his head, like.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Come on, I mean, like that stuff is unreal and
we see it every weekend.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Like I mentioned, if those two guys are rolling, it's
hard for you to say, all right, let's play coverage
and not allow Drake to be. It's not like how
to be because guess what, those guys can hurt you
just as much as they can. So it's fun to
watch those guys get going.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Let's give credit work credits due a little bit to
rack in that there was so much conversation about formations
and a lot of this that's being talked about. Many
don't understand what's going on from a from an ex
as an other standpoint, and so there was criticism about
this formation or about what this guy's playing, or that
you're selling in your vanilla too.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
But there were so.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Many little nuances that Zach built in to what Washington
was going to do. From a defensive standpoint, Washington was
a single high safety team. They want to they want
to show you umbrella, but they want to rock somebody
else in the box. They want to play single high
and they want to play man coverage. That lends itself
(14:28):
to making play and they have to protect. But that
lends itself the shot plays and things down the field,
and it lends itself to building opportunities for guys. And
Zach did a great job with design little short motions,
stack formations with London and Pitt's doing some things two
two on two combinations. Pitts catches the big ball early
(14:51):
in the game because Washington messes up the switch as
Drake comes across in motion, he stacks behind him. The
two guys jump Drake, Pitts gets in behind and he
hits him on the big play early in the football game.
He also designed a stack look or a bunch look
that included Jean Robinson in all honesty the first drive
of the game. Maybe Michael Pennix gave up on it
(15:12):
a little bit too early because because Bejon comes open
down the sideline and he oh.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
There he is, and he was a little bit short
with the throw or that would have been a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But that that stack look resulted in probably another forty
or fifty yards worth of plays.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Because of the design.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's about the touchdown to the first one that we
got to a receiver to drink. I mean, you got
stack for you got guys going like this and he
just sits there right now, I mean le.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Little zone buster there.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And then how about you know, there was so much
conversation about twelve personnel where we got one back two
tight ends of the game for the Minnesota game.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
How about flipping the script and going twenty one. He
had a number of.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Two back, one tight end sets in this game where
you had Bajon out on the flat catching the football.
We knew he had over one hundred yards receiving and
Algiers banging on people like shots talking. The ingenuity within
what we do offensively maybe lost on some people. Go back,
if you have a chance to go look at the tape.
A lot of ingenuity, a lot of creative stuff that
(16:10):
Zach came up with to attack this Washington defense. Now
it'll be a different set of circumstances when you look
at Buffalo and how Buffalo plays, and we'll talk about
them next week. But I just thought that was pretty cool.
I need to be pointed out, right.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, first first running back receiver duo with one hundred
receiving yards. It's nineteen eighty one. Who are they? Man,
can't help you? Come on, man, come on.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
William Andrees okay, Alfred Jenkins.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Okay, see you knew you knew it. That's why I
just you and.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
You you weren't even alive, so that's true.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Later later, okay, se can you tell me about that game? Yeah,
that one he's talking about.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
No, that's all I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Art.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You gave Zach Robinson some kudos for his play calling,
his scheme and getting guys open, because at the end
of the day, that's what this game is about. Everybody's
so athletic. How do you use the pieces to get
people open, because otherwise every throw is going to be
a contested catch, right. But I also want to give
some attention to the big boys up front, because it's
(17:12):
easy for us to look at our rundowns and see
and see Pennix, Bijon London pits. It doesn't ever say
anything about the offensive line. Okay, and this offensive line
has given up a total of five sacks this entire season,
which is fifth best in the National Football League. This
offensive line is also opening up holes for guys like
Jon Robinson to do what he does each and every week,
(17:34):
for Algier to get the yards that he does. So
to continue to let those guys eat up front, because
that's what's going to make everything work. If Michael Pennix
is under duress throwing the football, he ain't gonna be
able to get the ball to pits in London and
everything else. So for those guys, they need to get
love when it's there. Now. Last week, there was no
(17:55):
love to give out. Okay, when you get shut out,
there ain't no love to give out. But sometimes you
got to give credit where credit's due. And quarterbacks don't
throw for over three hundred yards if they don't have time, right,
if they can't see open receivers, son.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Or accentuate what you're saying, Yeah, I went. We had
to talk to We were trying to find guys to
talk to after the game last week. And so who
you're gonna pick out? You can pick out some better guy, Jake, would.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You go, would you we just gotta shut out Jake.
Would you go talk to radio guys. Yeah, okay, he
goes in.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I talked to you, I said, Jake, I promise when
we light it up on offic I'm gonna come get
We'll come get.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I went in. We did.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
We didn't talk to any offenseve lineman after the game
last year this week, so I went over Jake sitting
in his chair. He goes, didn't talk to any.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Just funny, we scoring thirty four, got nothing to say
the offensive line.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
I'm sorry, Jake, we go get him when the.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Things are going, bro.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
But Arch is sitting in the back of his mind saying, look,
well we scored thirty four points. I'm sorry, but the
people don't want to hear from the offensive line. They
want to hear from the star.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
You are dead on not doing that. So for that,
that's a great call.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So yeah, I mean, got to give them some credit
and listen, just for comparison, they've given up five sacks
this year. The Vikings have given up eighteen sacks. Like
sometimes you need to think about what else is going
on in the league. Well, if it's if they've only
given up five rules everybody else only given up eight. No, no, no,
there's been a team that are getting sacked left and right. Okay,
So a lot of that has to do with the
(19:26):
offensive line. Some of that has to do with Michael Pennix. Yes,
he's in a mobile quarterback, he's getting away from some
pressures and stuff. But a lot of kudos goes to them. Guys.
Let's talk a little bit about the defense. Not necessarily
a dominating performance, but it was good enough to win.
What did you see defensively in this game that were
some building blocks and maybe some areas that still have
to get cleaned up a little bit.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Well, I think let's start with the areas that need
to be cleaned. We need to try to eliminate explosive.
If they had six explosives in the game, and explosives
I count fifteen yards or more to look at that
base on what the Falcons did. Falcons had ten plays
of fifteen yards more in the game. That shows yet
explosively they were offensively. Atlantic came in with thirteen in
the first three games. You had ten in this game.
(20:07):
So the defense you need to continue. You want to
keep that down in a four three four range because
they're going to get explosive that teams, they're going to
make some plays. I think that something you pointed out
a lot rock is an area that this team has
struggled in the last several seasons, and that's getting people
off the field on third down or in the conversion
(20:28):
down situation. I thought they did a great job. They
were one of eight washing it was one to eight
on third down, throwing the two for two on fourth down,
So conversion down situation because they went for it two
times three for ten. That's winning football. You can get
people off the field, right. And then the other piece
of it, I think you mentioned early on four field goals.
You gave it four field goals, so it was And
(20:50):
I know Mike Cues talked a little bit about this
in an interview. I heard him talk about He says,
you know, you want to be just a suffocating defense
and dominant, but there is going to be have to
be some that ben don't break mentality for us, And
he talked about how that's something they want in their minds,
that hey, we'll give up a few things here or there,
but we're not going to let you get in the
end zone. And ultimately we're gonna win on third down.
(21:11):
I thought the day they did the key things that
help you win and get you to the playoffs and
give you a chance to win. The whole thing is
win moments, win on conversion down, win in the red zone.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And they did that this weekend.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah. Shock, I'm gonna turn this over to you because
this is kind of offense and defense. But what I
would say is another impressive moment, and I actually set
it to the guys downstairs during the game is fourth quarter.
Falcons get the ball back at eight forty eight. Okay,
And I said to the guys downstairs, I said, if
you want to be a different team, I said, your
(21:43):
offense puts the nail in the coffin here by stringing
together a long drive. You really got to put the
pressure on Washington that if they get the football back,
they don't have a whole lot of time. So what
does Atlanta do. They get the ball back at eight
forty eight, they put together a fourteen play drive that
take six fifty one off the clock, forces Washington to
use their last two timeouts. Yes, they settle for a
(22:05):
field goal, but they were running the football because they
wanted to make sure they kept the clock running, right.
So there are certain like we always talk about situationally
smart football, right, and you always go to third down
and red zone and so on and so forth, But
sometimes the situations are go win a football game, right.
So what I'm going to throw this to you shock
(22:26):
is how impressive was that drive And then the fact
that the defense buckled down enough as Washington was trying
to make a run at the end to just force
the field goal. And then they got to go for
a desperation on sidekick because that's kind of their last hope.
But that, to me, those last two drives kind of
signified what happened in that game, and it was a
difference in a mind shift.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I think the mindset of having to go get it
is something that I think a lot of teams they
strive to want. There are a lot of teams who
had end of a ball game you say, you know what,
we have to go run the football. The other team
knows you want to run the clock. And there's a
difference between situations of the game where you want to
run the football. We talk about balance all the time,
(23:07):
but this was a situation where you needed to run
the football and you were able to do it twelve
runs and then you talk about okay, here comes third down,
here comes that critical down where Okay, if you don't
convert this, they get the football back. How about your
your big time players, Penning stands in there, rips wanted
to drake over there, drakes unbelievable catch over there on
the sideline, to bring that ball in, throw the throw
(23:28):
the coyle. I mean you're talking about in those moments,
stepping up and playing the biggest football of the ball game.
That's what you like to see if you want to
go finish ball games. That's what good teams do. They
find ways to go win ball games at the end
when maybe that team understands what the situation is and
you gotta stop them defensively like you mentioned Ben, but
not break.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Yeah, those dudes get paid. Those just make a lot
of money. Over there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
They gonna make some plays, They gonna scheme me up.
They gonna have some big time play. I mean to
throw Mariota makes in the back of the end zone.
The Deebo Samuel on fourth down is a monster player.
It's a very very low percenter stro You find a
way to go get it and they make the play. Okay, yeah,
but then you have opportunity to come back and try
to close this ball game out, and you do so.
I thought the two linebackers in this ball game continue
(24:14):
to rehab it. Kate Ellis one time, obviously you know
you're just waiting for Marcus Mario at one point his
ball game to pull it. They run so much of
the zone reader, so much of the read, and then
he finally pulls it, and fifty five is standing.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
There like why why would you do that?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And he just smothers him and makes the play. Yeah,
Mario to guy one time, it made a big time
play on third down runout. But for the most part
you kept him under wraps. How many times you called
the offer name? I mean, come on, we came into
the last few weeks, say no aj Terrell, Oh man,
we hope we can hold up over there. The offers
done a fabulous job over there, holding that other side
(24:56):
down and doing a really good job. So it's been
fun to watch those guys go. But and also, how
about your young guys player really well, how about I
got Wats gets another interception, you know on the back end,
going to get the football like a receiver. You know
what I mean, young guys, you know, Jayalen Walker, continue
to pressure. Seeing those guys play well, Bowman, you know,
(25:16):
looking like a guy who's been the league three four,
five years. This defense is very talented, and they're showing
it in those key keys moments, and you're seeing those
guys kind of grow up the younger guys I'm telling.
But also all these guys come together and playing really well.
It's pretty fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, it was like, what was the first player that
one of the first players of the game they tried
to run jet sweep with with Deebo Samuel and who's
writing his hip pocket Billy Bowman. Yeah, Billy Bowman tracks
him to the sideline, turns you back inside, and Divine
Diablo sweeps him off his feet.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So excellent calls shot.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So that's that's a little bit of the recap of
the game.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Let's take a step back here and let's do a
little temperature check. Okay, because as we talked about, the
Falcons are going to be on there by this week,
So the Falcons are off. We'll get to the bye
week here in a second. But I would like to
call this kind of the concl illusion of the first quarter. Now,
back when we were playing, it was a four sixteen
game season, so when you played four games, it was
the first quarter. Okay, so now we got a seventeenth game,
(26:10):
but it's the bye week, and so we're still going
to call it the first quarter has passed us. So Arch,
give us kind of your temperature check on where you
think this team is through the first quarter of the season.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, I think you're still searching for who you're going
to be offensively. I think you've seen some moments, and
certainly this one is a great one to go to
bye week, you know, to be able to feel good
about what you're going to bring to the table. But hey,
it doesn't get any easier. It comes the defending MVP
and his team a week from Monday night or two
weeks from Monday night. You're going to see him here
in our building. So I think it's got to certainly
(26:43):
electrify the crowd that they're going to be able to
see Buffalo come in, but get a chance to see
your young team play against Buffalo. I think the one
that I want to point out to, and we were
just talking about defense, if you've held four consecutive opponents
for less.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Than three hundred yards offense. That doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
This was the biggest offensive day so far that you've seen,
was Washington had two hundred ninety four yards of offense.
I mean, if you're averaging less than three hundred yards
of offense in a season, you're probably going to be
picking first in the NFL draft. And you've limited the
last the four offenses you've seen so far, all of
(27:21):
them under three hundred yards. That includes Baker Mayfield in
his group, you know, and that was that was sub
two point fifty I believe. So that part of it,
I think is being lost. And you're also you know,
you're trying to keep people off the scoreboard. I think
you're winning moments. So I would point as much as
we want to point to that young group on offense
and how fun it was this weekend. Just the steadiness
(27:41):
with which Jeff Oulbricks team is playing with on defense.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Shock, What's what's your temperature here? Through through four games?
What you've seen obviously the law, the kind of the
back and forth a little bit, but at least going
into the bye week with some more positivity.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I think what Archie has mentioned is probably where a
lot of people are because you've seen a mixed back,
you've seen the really good moments. You see moments that
you're like, man, I wish they could have that back.
I wish this team would look like this. And I
thought last week was a good representation of what this
team could be, a good representation of what they're striving
to be. And you hope that's only something you can
(28:19):
build on. Like you mentioned, going into a bye week,
it feels so much better going into it playing the
way you played that you can build on that going
into obviously another big time matchup. The one thing that
I love about this team is the accountability factor. I
think after each game, whether it's been up or down,
they've held themselves accountable for the way they played. And
(28:40):
just listening to the guys talking to the locker room,
just hearing some of the things that you see from
the team. There wasn't like a big hoorah after this ballgame.
It was more of a this is what we expected,
this is how we should play. This is not like, yeah,
we're excited, we're glad we finally put these something together.
(29:01):
It was like, this is something we should have been done.
This is what we expected to do. So I love
that about this team is that they still feel like
there's so much more room to grow and that this
wasn't just an anomaly. This is what they thought should
happen when it came into the ballgame and how they
should play.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
One of the things that I thought about was, you know,
this team, like, what is what can this team be?
Especially after what you saw against Washington, And my thought was,
this is a playoff caliber team when they play to
their capabilities and to your point, arch in the National
Football League, you're not going to score thirty four points
(29:36):
every week, But could that be twenty four? Can that
be twenty seven? Can that be a seventeen point offense?
But your defense goes out and plays stifling and your
win a game seventeen to six. Right, But when they
play to their capabilities with so many playmakers on offense,
with the ball skills and now that the youth and
the pass rush movement on the defensive side, with a
(29:58):
guy that is called the plays on the defensive side,
it's had a lot of success in the National Football League.
It's hard to sit here and say, to your point,
they're gonna score thirty four points they're gonna put u
four hundred yards offense. You're gonna keep every team under
three hundred. This is the NFL. Everybody's got dudes on
their team. But if they play to their capabilities, I
think it's definitely a playoff caliber team. Now, I didn't
(30:20):
say that they're gonna end up sweeping. I didn't say
they're gonna end up getting to the championship. It's a
playoff caliber And how are you playing at the end
of the season. If you can get into the dance right.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Wreck you do a really good job of directing the
traffic with us and throwing stuff at us, I would
love to, you know, take a little detour, take a
dtour and go down this rout. Now, it's obviously the
third phase you just talked about. Obviously, where's this team at?
That third phase is a big part of where this
team at. We saw Parker Romo respond this week. But
(30:53):
where would you say this team is on that third
phase because we know, as we've seen it can win
or lose ball games for you through games where that
phase is with this team.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
To be honest with you, guys, it's got to be better.
They still give up a big return again last week
and field position. I think field position in this era
of the NFL has come even more important. And the
reason why is kickers are kicking field goals. Like now
as soon as you get past midfield, you're almost in
rage right where when we were playing guys, it was
like he get hit one from fifty for fifty, dude,
(31:25):
Now it's sixty sixty five or you're not even in
the ballpark. So what I'm saying is if they continue
to give up big returns on special teams, you're now
basically one or two first downs away from giving up points, right,
So that area has to get better.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Now.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Things you're starting to see kickoff return and kick off
evolve with this new landing zone right how teams are
approaching it by kicking the ball. They're purposely putting it
in the landing zone. It doesn't have a whole lot
of hangtime on it now and they're forcing teams to
make plays. But if you don't still have the same
details the coverage lane responsibilities you saw last week, McCaffrey
(32:00):
just bust one right up the middle and all of
a sudden you give up a big return. We saw
what happened with the field goal kicking that still has
to get more consistent. Okay, I think Bradley Pinion's been
doing a really good job. He's going to be a weapon.
He's going to continue to help them change field position
in the punt game. But if we're being honest, through
the first quarter of the season, the temperature there is
probably a sixty degrees like, it's got to get warmer,
(32:22):
it's got to get hotter. On special teams. If they
want to be a playoff caliber team, it's got to
be all three phases. And it's still been a little
bit inconsistent.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah, it's been interesting too, because it seems like it's fluctuated,
and that's we came in here talking about, Hey, we're
flying like this. We want to continue to get better
each each week. But it seems like that piece of it,
and on the offense too, has done this. But there's
been you know, really good in returns, oh, really good
in coverage, but not so good in return and vice versa.
(32:53):
How much rack is it are off? Our special teams
coordinators really still trying to figure this out. Oh yeah,
and if you do have a guy like we saw
two weekends ago against Carolina that kind of has that
fu knuckleball? Yeah figured out? You know, it's almost like
Phil Nekro where that gay come from?
Speaker 5 (33:15):
No, how much are they still trying to figure this out?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
This has been very interesting watching this evolution guys, because
it was like the first year that they did this,
I still felt like they were just kind of kicking
the ball in the end zone, right, like we haven't
figured out how.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
But now I think the more time that they're having,
the more stuff that's getting on tape, the knuckleballs, right,
the more time they're able to kind of strategize how
you can be a difference maker. Now special teams coaches
are like, nah, we're not going to approach it like this,
We're going to kick the ball in the landing zone.
And now they're playing with like kickers are also having
to reformat their brain because they're used to hitting the
(33:49):
ball hard. They're used to always just blasting the ball
like that's how you get in the NFL kick long
field goals, be able to kick the ball out of
the end zone, right, And now you're changing their whole
world if you will, by Hey, we want you to
kind of shank it right. We want this ball to
hit it about the ten yard line with some funky
bounces on it make it difficult for them to return it. Oh,
by the way, all of our guys are right on
(34:11):
top of them by that point.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I watched the game of the day and they kicked
it and it landed right in the land zone but
went in and it got to ball onto twenty yard.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I was like, this looks weird.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
It looks it used to be everybody right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Now you see everybody coming out to the thirty thirty
five whatever it is, and you know, get good returns.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But it was just just weird to see that.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
And it's interesting too that what you're saying, Rack is
the kicker has to be a little bit more versatile.
It used to be, like you said, pound it pounded,
and now I've got to I know that. I talked
to Bradley Pinion, who does it. Most are kicking off,
and he said, I really had to work on trying
to do that little bunt kick, you know, And now
I've got to try to work on something that's not
(34:52):
just tumbling in over in which is easy to catch.
Now I got to get it spinning sideways or something
like that and falling in that song, and it's like,
you know, you're trying to hit that webshot into.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
The green, can't go over the green.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
You know, I got to hit it their pin high,
so they're they're trying to It's really made it difficult
for the kicker, which I think is kind of cool.
Sure in all actuality, make you know you're not just
pound a past. You got to show me some versatility, Yeah,
what you can do?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, exactly. So I think that's something that we're going
to continue to see evolved throughout the course of the season.
But but be quite honest, it's got to be a
little bit better as far as the Falcons are concerned.
All Right, guys, last kind of topic we're going to
talk about is bye week. Let's talk about how the
Falcons use this bye week because here's I think it's
the bye week can be a gift and a curse
depending on where it falls in the season. Okay, and
(35:39):
in my opinion this this year, the where it falls
could be a little bit of a curse. If you
have your bye week really early or really late, I
think it can be an issue because you either got
a grind on the front end or you got a
grind on the back end, and Atlanta's gonna have a
grind on the back end. They're gonna have thirteen straight games,
including one international game, and a lot of times with
international game. As you get a little breather, you get
(36:01):
a week off or maybe you play the following Thursday.
That's not gonna happen with Atlanta, So they get an
opportunity arts to maybe get a little healthier early on
a j. Terrell's obviously the biggest name that comes to mind, Mody,
but Mooney as well. He's been banged up early on
and again this past weekend. But how do you feel
this team needs to navigate the bye week to set
them up for success? I would I would almost say
(36:23):
second half, But it's almost second three fourths of the year.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, I mean they've been They've been going since what
mid July, and so you're going every week. You did
have that week I guess where we don't have a
preseason game anymore, so you sprinkle that maybe that week
right there in Labor Day you get a little bit
of break there.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
I think it sucks.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I think thee why court is is not very good.
You know, and I agree with you. You you'd like
to have it mid season somewhere, not to mention the
fact you're going to get a divisional opponent in Tampa
in November in a short week. So not only do
you get thirteen year old, you get short weing. Now
you get the mini bye after that, but maybe the
die's cast at that point, so you got to you
(37:05):
got to make sure that you're going to maintain revolutions
and and win here in this long stretch where you
don't have a buy. I think it's interesting to me guy,
and and I don't think it. I just said I
don't like it. I'd rather have it in the middle.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
So what do you do with it?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
A lot of the guys are doing what you'd expect
them to do, recharge the battery. I think the question
here is and you, I'd be interested to see what
you guys thought with the different coaches that you guys
have played under. Uh I did we didn't have this opportunity,
So tell me what you wanted coaches to do, because
essentially what they're gonna do here is they're giving the
guys the week off. Okay, it's early in the year.
(37:41):
All of a sudden, you're gonna get away from football,
which we charged the battery. And I've talked to a
number of guys that a couple of guys are gonna
go to New York, see a couple of shows, you know,
spend time with their family, spend time here in Atlanta
with the family, go to the beach, whatever. What do
What do you guys think about? Because Smitty, I remember,
Smitty would give them the week off, much like Raheem
has I remember Coach Mora, he kept everybody. You kept
(38:02):
people here and you practiced on Thursday. You guys tell me.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, I mean I think there's there's definitely a number
of different ways. At the end of the day, I
think you have to let these guys be pros and
they've got to manage their week appropriately.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
The young guys.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, exactly, because I heard somebody ask John Robinson a
question like what are you doing for the bye week?
And he now I don't know if this is true,
but he said, I think I'm going to stay here.
Like he said that, he may not go out a
lot of times. They want to go back to their
alma mater and they want to watch a football game.
They want to go on the sidelines. You get a
chance to see a lot of the former players.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Bad.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, but so many of these Here's the thing, these
guys are grown men. Many of these guys are married,
they have children, and not to mention the fact that
they're extremely wealthy. Okay, the money now is just crazy.
So for them, I mean getting a first class flight
to go somewhere, or dare I say, get a private
jet to go somewhere. It's not really a big deal
(38:57):
for these guys now. But you just got to trust
them to be pro and understand. I think, guys, the
fact that they had the Carolina game, I think is
enough medicine for everybody to remember that felt like we
have to focus on the task at hand because you
don't ever want to get in that situation again.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Shock.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
You don't ever want to have to answer media availability
after you gets smoked by somebody in the national.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
That's a really good point because when you're hurting that manner,
it doesn't really go away. And I think after a
good win like you had, I think it kind of
feeds you a little bit more to like, you know,
I would rather have that feeling as opposed to what
we saw two weeks ago. But I think you make
up a good point too about being grown and understanding.
I think the other part about it is head coach
knowing what kind of team he has, what kind of
(39:43):
players he has. But well, those guys still Okay, I
give these guys four or five days away, will they
completely get away and not really, you know, worry about
football the way, we still have guys who are gonna
go work out, Guys still gonna do stuff. But I
love the fact that, you know, during his time, a
lot of guys I want to be to take their
kids to school, to pick them up. I want to
be able to, you know, spend time with I want
(40:04):
to go catch a movie with them. You know, you're
here all the time at the facility and now you
get to, you know, all Daddy's home. That's a really
great feeling for a lot of guys be able to
have those moments. So I think a lot of guys
will feed into that and it won't be the extravagant thing.
But then there's also hey, I need new scenery, and
you can understand that as well. Like you mentioned, these
guys are wealthy enough to be able to go do that.
(40:25):
But I think to the point what you mentioned that
Carolina game still sits right there at the frontal lobe
of man. We were really embarrassed. I don't ever want
to be a part of that again. So I got
to make sure I do my part to make sure
when we do come back, then I'm ready to go.
So it's like you mentioned, a lot of coaches did
a lot of different ways. I was with that Moril
(40:45):
crew where you know, we were here to Thursday, maybe
got out by noon on Thursday, but you still work
through some stuff and then you went and had a
couple of days with whatever you wanted to do. So
I think it's just knowing your team messing and how
they know they're gonna respond.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
I would imagine, you know, I haven't played in this era,
if you will, but the technology is a whole lot different,
the ability to text and you know, send guys social
media metches. Probably still gonna be sending guys little clips
on over sure. Yeah, here's the Buffalo defense. Just in
case you're not doing too much. Here's a couple of
looks that I saw that you might want to. I'm
sure there's probably gonna be a little bit of it
to do that shock.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Would you be able to unplug. Say you're the quarterback,
would you be able to unplug? And so you'd be
looking at Buffalo So you're Michael Pennix, I'll be on there.
Are you looking at Buffalo tape?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
There's there's times, yeah, yeah, I mean there's only so
much you could do, you know, all day whatever the
the thing you're doing. There's let me take thirty minutes
out of my time to take a look at a
couple of third down situations. No, here's you know, here's
twenty minutes to look at what they do in the
red zone. Yeah, it would be hard for me as
the quarterback to just completely not look at anything because
(41:52):
our mind is not No, you can't do it. I
don't think Michael Pennock says that. I mean, I don't
think anybody will absolutely just totally detached from it. There's
gonna be a little things here and there that you're
thinking about. But yeah, no way, Yeah you might find it.
You might be at a family barbecue, right, say, where'd
Michael go? You go over and he's looking at it.
He's in a back room, he's looking at his phone.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
He's either That's just the way our minds are wired,
you know. And I know you do the same.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Thanks, say, let me take a little peak at this,
take a little peak at that. I got a little
freak time. I'm gonna take a little peak. Yeah, I
don't think and don't worry about that. As fans, these guys,
albeit they're unplugging, they're not completely unplugged, right, Okay, they
know that there's a lot more to take care of.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
The sad part is every once in a while I
like to date ourselves. Is that when we were playing,
we started with a VCR tapes to watch tape, and
then we we morphed into DVDs. Okay, no, no, okay.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
You know you want to go ahead with the with
the reels sixteen milliveter field.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
Started for me and they break.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Damn it.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
I have to have tape and you can taping it up.
I just want to watch the Can I just watch it?
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Why does it keep breaking?
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Oh yeah?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Now it's as simple as pushing send and it gets
pushed to a phone, to an iPad, to whatever else
of technology these guys have all at their fingertips. All right,
that's going to wrap it up for the Falcons Audible
presented by AT and T. As we mentioned no game
this weekend. We will be back next week to preview
the Buffo Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (43:22):
Bills Monday night matchup. Folks coming back to buy in
prime time. But until then, make sure that you continue
to follow us. You know, every once in a while,
I watch these people that are like have their own
YouTube channels, and they always say, Hey, if you like
this content, make sure you push the subscribe button and
like it.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
So we can continue to offer content like this. By
the way, I'm not getting paid on any of the
amount of subscribers that we get, but the Falcons would
truly appreciate it. And you know what else, You constantly
get updated when guys like us put out podcasts or
the rest of the folks within here in the organization.
On any time we have stuff about the Atlanta Falcon,
you'll get it coming right to your device anymore. Hey,
(44:06):
enjoy your football weekend. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty,
whether it's college, whether it's NFL other NFL action Shock
Kentucky this weekend, correct.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
Wildcats coming noon. We have to avenge.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
I heard Kirby Smart say in his press conference say
that it's always a physical game, always hockey, always They
both like it.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
Stoops stoops.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Row. I don't know. Everybody can't be on the FEEDO
of the second.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
It's all good, So enjoy your football Falcons free weekend,
but not too much because you've got to have some
anticipation for us to come back. We'll be back next
week for the FACON Doutible presented by AT and T.
Thanks so much for joining US Falcons with a thirty
four to twenty seven victory before their bye week over
the Washington Commanders. We'll see you next week, everybody,
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